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GPSS Fuel Depot, Islip, Oxfordshire, April 2013

Visited with Mookie and Landie.

Initial blunders
First thing's first. I'm sworn to secrecy about the location, but Landie and I originally planned to take a peek at the derelict part of an enormous but very much live MOD site. All's well and good initially, so we have a gander round the bits that aren't beyond the public boundary. So we get to the fence, and it's all dead and boarded up. We spot a van inside. Security guard? Sure. So walking down a public road, cameras still out, and an MOD police dog unit van drives past. I pay no attention, but Landie sees him slow down and take a peek at us. So we continue walking down, but as soon as we get to the gate the van reappears, stops and the guy questions us. To be fair he knew his rights and our own and he was perfectly fair and friendly about it. We were asked general questions i.e. what we were up to, what we did for a living, and if we had ID on us. Course I didn't have any, but he said I didn't need to give any details so considering I was on the public boundary I refused. The officer said that they get funny about people walking round with cameras (despite the fact that regular businesses and civilians work on the sites), even though there's nothing genuinely sensitive about the site (though he said it's covered by the official secrets act). But on the other hand I'm very glad I didn't get caught INSIDE, considering they were training dogs there and that according to the byelaw it's subject to it's a fine of up to £500 for any offending act including trespass*. I'll be leaving that lead until the ownership passes to the DIO or private hands.

Rewind to 2008-2011
Well well, where do I start with this place? My first explore with UKMayhem in 2008, and a place that's been on my doorstep all my life. I was always fascinated by the look of the site, just wondering what it would be like inside and what would happen with it. Nothing happened with the site as far as I could see, until 2008 when the railway track inside was removed. Thinking something would be happening with the site, I joined an urbex forum and met UKMayhem. We got inside, only to find every single building locked with heavy duty padlocked, and the underground tunnels flooded. We did find one building unlocked but contractors (who visited twice weekly) found this and boarded it up instantly. What an anti-climax eh? I returned in 2011 with Mookie, and nothing had changed still.

The visit
So I'd been tipped off about a pikey attack from a mate who lives next to the place, so I made it a priority. But when I returned from Manchester, a security guard appeared and groundwork appeared to be ongoing now that the place was sold to an unknown company. Thinking this place was under threat, I took a look but just before I got to the best bit security catches me when they step out the cabin (the place is like no mans land everywhere). A foreign guy comes over, barely speaking any English and threatens to call the police because he was alone and (no joke) he thinks I'd attack him. So that was game over there, BUT what I did notice was that most buildings had been broken into and were accessible.

Fast forward a few months later, and security had gone. A quick invite to Mookie and we made our entry soon after.

What we saw was astounding! Admittedly it's not epic to your average explorer, but given that I've woken every day to see this place, it was genuinely amazing to see just what treasures lay in waiting!

The place, since it closed in 1994 (along with Upper Heyford, which it supplied Kerosene to) had been kept on standby by the DIO. They said that critical equipment and grounds maintenance was undertaken as well as security, prior to a planned reinstatement by the MOD. Though decayed since closure, it was maintained to a point where it could be brought back to use within a very short time, which meant that the whole site was a total time warp! Machinery was intact, and virtually all of the stuff left from when it was open remained in situ! According to the logbook left in the office, this continued right up until May 2012 when the site was prepared for sale.

Alas, this being opened up has not been without its drawbacks. The blast-proof staff building, which was built to a near identical specification to the bunker in the QRA at RAF Upper Heyford, had been badly pikeyed and set fire to in the process. A real shame too, considering this too would've had some interesting switchboards (eg. Islip-Upper Heyford alarm system) and also been an epic timewarp!

Had a rather hilarious encounter though, when the farmer came in to add a new haybale! Landie and I went to hide behind a mound, whilst Mookie was still inside one of the buildings! How he didn't see Mookie running across in full view of him to hide let alone do anything, I will never know. I can't explain why, but put simply hiding from him was damn funny!

Re: GPSS Fuel Depot, Islip, Oxfordshire, April 2013

And now, for the most amazing part of the site. I don't know what to call this building, but it looked magnificent!

I did get caught in this room, which meant that it got boarded up unfortunately, meaning no access to the largest room! That said, 2 of the boards to the other bits had been ripped off and I'm sure the biggest part won't stay sealed forever.

Sadly this was all that remained of note in the bunker.

1 of 4 underground tanks near the front of the site.

Offices

Also of note in the office area were 2 small air raid shelters, 1 of which looked like a Nissen hut. Sadly the latter was buried and just peeking out from underneath the turf, and the other was sealed shut with a blast door and flooded. Incredible nonetheless.

On a final note, it appears that one part of the deep underground parts isn't flooded, so I'll be back without a shadow of doubt to have a look at this and the sealed part of the "pipe shed". Sorry for being so wordy, but it's an amazing site nonetheless.

Re: GPSS Fuel Depot, Islip, Oxfordshire, April 2013

Looking good TBM, nicely documented, thanks for sharing.
Your 'Initial blunders' paragraph, sounds identical to a situation I had not so long ago, at possibly the same site (without given any details away) not so far away from UH?

Re: GPSS Fuel Depot, Islip, Oxfordshire, April 2013

Originally Posted by Tankman

Looking good TBM, nicely documented, thanks for sharing.
Your 'Initial blunders' paragraph, sounds identical to a situation I had not so long ago, at possibly the same site (without given any details away) not so far away from UH?

Tankman, you've told me about this once before so the answer is yes we had exactly the same encounter.

PS. Having looked at the planning brief for this site, was it the UH Heritage Group who put in a request for a photographic survey?